The 72nd Annual Commencement Ceremony for the Graduating Class of 2014 will be held on the grounds of St. Tikhon’s Monastery on Saturday, May 24, 2014 at 1:00 PM. The guest speaker for this year’s commencement ceremony will be His Grace Bishop Sava (Urich).

Directly following the commencement ceremony there will be a banquet held in honor of the graduates and their families at St. Michael’s Center in East Jermyn, PA beginning at 3:30 PM. The schedule of events for Saturday, May 24, 2014 is as follows:

9:00 AM Liturgy at the St. Tikhon’s Monastery Church (A meal for Pilgrims will be directly following Liturgy.)

1:00 PM 72nd Annual Commencement Ceremony

3:30 PM Graduation Banquet at St. Michael’s Center in East Jermyn. (For graduates and their families.)

For the complete listing of the Memorial Day Pilgrimage Weekend activities please follow the link to the St. Tikhon's Monastery Website.

Bishop Sava was born on February 27, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois to 3rd generation Serbian/American parents, Anthony and Dokmana Urich. He was baptized later that year on June 21, 1942, at Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Ill.

Bishop Sava began his life as a monastic at the age of 18 when he was tonsured as a Novice in 1958 at St. Sava Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois. From there he would move to South Canaan, PA in 1960 where he became for a time, part of the monastic community of St. Tikhon’s Monastery as well as taking classes at St. Tikhon’s Seminary. In 1964 he was tonsured first to the lesser Schema and then ordained a Hierodeacon in February of 1964 and then later ordained as a Priest-monk at St. John the Baptist Church in San Francisco, CA.

On December 18, 1988 His Grace was elevated to the rank of Archimandrite at St. George Cathedral, Cabramatta, Sydney, Australia where he would serve as Chancellor to Metropolitan Iriney (Kovacevich) for the Australian-New Zealand Diocese.

On June 1, 1994, he was elected by the Assembly of Bishop (Sabor) of the Serbian

Orthodox Church in Belgrade, Serbia (Yugoslavia) as Bishop of the Australian-New Zealand Diocese of the New Gracanica Metropolia.

June 17, 1994, consecrated at the New Gracanica Monastery as a Bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church by His Holiness, Patriarch Paule and would later be made Bishop of the Diocese of Slavonia in Central Croatia .

Bishop Sava was granted a well-deserved retirement from the Diocese of Slavonia in November, 2013.